"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
- First Amendment to United States Constitution
This one sentence has done more to shape the lives of Americans than any other in history of the United States. It holds the five personal freedoms given to every U.S. Citizen, resident, visitor - Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, Right to Assemble and Right to Petition. It has been followed, challenged, cherished and chided. The First Amendment is one the first of ten amendments created in 1789 at the first Continental Congress by James Madison, then ratified in 1791, creating the Bill of Rights. These amendments limit the powers of the federal government protecting the rights of all citizens, residents and visitors on United States territory.
Jake has been an vocal advocate and enthusiastic supporter of The First Amendment and The Bill of Rights with his association and support of the American Civil Liberties Union. (ACLU)
The Foner/Gyllenhaals have been members of the ACLU for decades and have instilled their passion and support for preservation of civil liberties to their children. They were honored as a family with the Torch of Liberty Award in 2003. "The Torch of Liberty Award was created to acknowledge the contributions made by individuals from the media and arts & entertainment industry whose creative and sometimes daring work affirms the democratic principles that underlie the promise of 'liberty and justice for all,'".
Jake has supported the ACLU on his own in other ways. Some of those include the posing for the ACLU ad campaign "I'm Not an American Who?", participating in the 2004 ACLU Freedom concert, and his continuing support to ACLU Southern California Chapter with donating the opportunity of having lunch with him to the highest bidder, on many of his movies.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Freedom Fighter
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58 comments:
I've always been very passionate about the First Amendment, including defending the right of people to say things I completely disagree with or find deeply offensive.
Given Jake's strong support of the ACLU, I've always found it ironic that so many of Jake's fans want to put a limit on the topics that can be discussed. Not to mention stealing people's internet identities rather than having the courage to post under their own internet identities. To me that is just another tactic used to try and shut down somebody's speech, as is the disappearance of Giusi's videos.
Freedom of speech isn't always pretty, but people who really support the First Amendment understand that. They also understand that the alternative is not acceptable.
Destiny, AMEN to your entire post!
I second, third and fourth it Destiny.
Very well said Destiny. Personnally i am beginning to think that maybe someone who has a little power and is assoc with Jake's success in HW had those videos pulled. After reading yesterdays comments about how hard it is to get in touch with Youtube or google it is difficult not to think that.
Tom, I doubt Jake's people took down the videos. If they didn't do anything about Ted's BI's, the Jason Jaxson stories, all the internet rumors, National Enquirer or anyone else who mentioned the gay rumors. I don't think they would go out of their way to take down fan videos.
"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."
—Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, "The One Un-American Act." Nieman Reports, vol. 7, no. 1 (Jan. 1953): p. 20.
I am skeptical that some people of jake's clan have boycotted the jaustin's video, but about the fans (IHJ in primis), which saw not welcome these videos can believe. Now dimostare my honesty, I go back to youtube place in the video that caused this disaster, with a nik different from the current one in which I am rebuilding jaustin history. You giudicherete if it is so erotic than that now contains you tube;)
Ang Lee was interviewed by Tony Potts of Access Hollywood (airing tonight). He was asked about Heath and his best memory of him. (Ang is at ShoWest '08). Tony also asked Ang if it will be hard watching "The Dark Knight" (they're showing it at the ShoWest). Ang paused and said yes. It's on the accesshollywood.com site.
I am not sure what Jake's team is capable of right now. Jake is actively bearding, not a word from Ted for almost a month, now videos missing from Youtube. Sure makes me wonder.
There is no way of knowing for certain who was behind giusigate, but it could have been PR. With YouTube they could do it under the guise of the videos not fiting within the guidelines, and no one would know they did it. The fact they didn't take on Ted, etc. is because realistically there was no way to do so without causing a stir and calling more attention to Toothy Tile and Jake.
American Libraries Association's
The Most Challenged Book for 2006..
And Tango Makes Three
"Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell’s award-winning "And Tango Makes Three," about two male penguins parenting an egg from a mixed-sex penguin couple, tops the list of most challenged books in 2006 by parents and administrators, due to the issues of homosexuality."
Guisi,
I have downloaded 4 of your videos:
- Never let me down
- Do you really want to hurt me
- Precious friend
- Birthday Austin
What can I do to get them back to you? I really have no idea what to do with the videos.
Can somebody translate this message for Guisi?
Thanks.
One way to do it - make the files available for download.
You can upload videos to the SendSpace site and post links for download:
http://www.sendspace.com/
After reading yesterdays comments about how hard it is to get in touch with Youtube or google it is difficult not to think that.
Tom, what is difficult is getting in touch with YouTube/Google to find out why something has been removed. If you want to object to something, or claim that someone has violated either your copyright or your privacy, they make that easy to do. What you can't do is challenge YouTube's decision to remove your videos. And they just remove them without giving you a warning or a reason. Also, it seems that the way for a video to come to their attention is that someone has to complain about it.
Sally Kern Scrubs Gay Son?
Uh-oh! Could foul-mouthed Sally Kern’s secret be out of the bag?
The Oklahoma lawmaker’s homophobic remarks have been the talk of the town recently, especially her assertion that gay folk are infiltrating schools to indoctrinate children. And, sensing a critical national spotlight, Kern made a very suspicious change to her official government homepage.
If you compare a March 4th cache and today’s version, you’ll notice that Kern and/or her staff deleted a biographical sentence mentioning her two adult sons, Jesse and Nathan. Obviously our warning bells went off, so we did a little digging and found something quite queer.
Consider comment seventeen on this Tulsa World article: “How come no-one asks this “supposed” christian woman..about her own GAY son? The one she basically has dis-owned…ahh so christian.”
What?! Kern and her Baptist preacher hubbie had a homo? And they disowned him? That’s some Alan Keyes shit…
...
Sally Kern Scrubs Gay Son?
oh spooky, Thanks so much! Do you really want to hurt me Precious friend can be useful, never let me down and never let me down 2 and happy birthday are already online! If indeed behind the censorship giusi's video is the jake berdering hours you will see, will be back very soon!If indeed behind the censorship giusi's video is the jake bearding hours you will see, will be back very soon!
more jaustinvideo
^^i honestly not see anything in this video that would cause anyone to pull it. There's actually more damaging Heath/Jake videos on u-tube than what iv'e just seen. I actually saw one where the person had spliced Jake and Heath together at the Nicks game...lol. I thought it was kind of funny actually.
I guess this means that while Sally Kerns was busy disowning her son she was probably ignorantly blaming all those "gays" who "recruited" her son. Very sad.
I'm suprised to see we haven't had too much discussion on today's post. Special, maybe you should have run a picture of shirtless Austin with Free Speech stamped on his chest.
^^sorry...meant to say I don't see anything wrong with the video.
thanks 'sendspace', I uploaded both files on sendspace.
Guisi, you can download the missing videos here:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/7czgng
http://www.sendspace.com/file/q28ac0
I hope it works
Yes, it works :)
Destiny, I think Jake looks pretty damn sexy here. ;p
As for the topic, I have always liked that Jake and the Gyllenhaal's supported the ACLU. That can be a controversial stand but a noble one I think.
Discussion, well it would be fun to have a constitution to amend :)
And an elected prime minister ... never mind. Great post.
It's good to see all the solidarity with Giusi, too - I hope she (and we) get the most recent one back!
Interesting we haven't had any blog sightings of Jake and Reese. Is Reese still filming? I still think this thing could go until fall at least.
I hope Jake stayed on the East coast - he deserves a vacation far, far away from her! lol
Very interesting, Queerty! Perez just picked up that story too!
Kern vows not to apologize
This link will allow you to see the story without having to register.
Fear of loving, not sex
Wise words from JK Rowling about homophobes REAL motivation.
Here's an OK! article about Reese and Jake and home decorating. It says that Maggie likes Reese so much that she gave her a subscription to Blueprint magazine. Funny thing is, Blueprint stopped publishing! Guess Maggie likes Reese's pieces after all!
Speaking of magazines, People Magazine's cover story on Heath's death is so far, the top selling issue of that mag this year. Last year People Mag's cover story on Owen Wilson's attempted suicide was the top seller. According to mag experts, the reason why these particular issues do so well (as opposed to babies) is because they are dealing with the unexpected and shocking deaths (or attempted suicides) of young celebrities.
People mag's story on Diana's death is its record best seller ever .
Yay J K Rowling! That is a great comment, ME! Thanks for sharing.
Did you guys know that J K Rowling published under her initials because she was afraid the Harry Potter books wouldn't sell if people knew she was a woman?
More on the 1st Amendment- I talked to Giusi and since we can't get in touch with anybody at YouTube by phone, I'm going to write a letter for her asking why the videos were removed. I'll keep you guys posted on the response, or lack thereof.
No OK mag article. About there speed. It is nice to see that the one comment calls it a Fauxmance.
Here is the comment:
FAUXMANCE
A romantic getaway?!? LOL! Give us a break! We DID see their NYC pictures - just another FAKE Hollywood "couple".
Tina Jones WED MARCH 12, 2008 6:38PM
So which one of you put the comment up ;-)
'No' was meant to be Nice at the start of the last post. And my there and their got a bit messed up. Hey at least i got the italics for the quote!
Check this out.
Harry Potter and the Censor's Flames
Back up. Back up. Back up.
Before you upload your creations on cyberspace. BTW, Special K, do you have a back up of all the materials in this blog? If not, better get at it ASAP.
Great link, FYI. It is truly amazing when you think about the great books that people have tried to get banned.
Rattler, we're working on it. It takes mucho storage space and time to do.
Remember how we bombed Fred Phelps and Westboro Baptist? Anybody interested in doing it again to Sally Kern?
Thanks for posting that great quote Me. I've often thought that attitudes like that are involved when people claim to have nothing against gay people but then oppose gay marriage; same with the don't ask, don't tell policy. If it really was just about sex, wouldn't there be a preference for seeing people in stable, long-term relationships rather than doing what the Larry Craigs of the world do?
And I agree ACLU, Jake does look pretty good in this picture.
Anybody interested in doing it again to Sally Kern?
I am! Let's give her a collective piece of our minds. Her comments are just so offensive. I'm sorry also Giusi that you had to go through having your videos deleted when there's so much out there that really ought to be seriously removed, ones nowhere near as lovely as yours. When you try to find for a reason why, hoping and not wanting to believe it could be the reason you think.
I've always wondered about why it is that long-term, stable and loving same sex relationships are so feared - because they would have to be taken seriously then.
It's scary to think about the books that have been banned or destroyed for so-called controversial subject matter. I am so thankful that we have our First Amendment rights and freedom that allows us to think for ourselves and not the majority. It can be a double-edged blessing when those with negative messages spout their hatred, but it's all about keeping things open and free, and it's better to know and be aware than not. Great post today and something we can always use reminding of.
Wicked and Special, you are such advocates! :*
Just catching up, I never did get to pick my favorite Austin photo from the previous post, it's the 5-alarm blaze t-shirt and ladder pic - honey, you can paint my house anytime! Although Jake does rock the t-shirt as far as I'm concerned too, Frenchy.
And hooray for the Gay Dads and future Gay Dads, John Barrowman & Scott Gill, Tom Ford & his partner and Jaason Simmens & his partner!:)
I am so thankful that we have our First Amendment rights and freedom that allows us to think for ourselves and not the majority. It can be a double-edged blessing when those with negative messages spout their hatred, yada yada
Jeeze, did I really write that? It should say "the majority not speak for us", and sorry about the mixed metaphors! It should be either double edged sword or mixed blessing, not both! LOL
My previous comment was all messed up so I deleted it! Here I go again...
I'm suprised to see we haven't had too much discussion on today's post.
My own excuses: can't post from work; just came home and totally exhausted. :( Hopefully I'll have time to check all the interesting stuff you linked tomorrow.
Great, great post Special. A much timely and appropriate reminder of how fragile those liberties we take for granted really are.
And I'll add my yay to Destiny's comment, namely:
Freedom of speech isn't always pretty, but people who really support the First Amendment understand that. They also understand that the alternative is not acceptable.
Quick additional .2 for today; I don't think anybody from Jake's clan had anything to do with the taking-down of Guisi's videos. I strongly supsect this is an "inside" job, namely from fans belonging to the Reese, JIS and/or Reeke clans.
And now the sweetest dreams to you all. :)
Egyszer volt Budán kutyavásár.
Jake has an injury: http://www.flynetonline.com/2008/03/jakes-new-injury/
Ah, serves him right, I must say -
fury of gods and scorn of men.
His legs looked shaved. Probably a biking inury.
But he's good enough to do a Reeke flower shopping trip.
http://www.flynetonline.com/2008/03/flowers-for-gyllenspoon/
Any of you tell me what is on the back of Reese's neck? Is it a high wierd collar or is her hair really that dark, almost black? Shit!
Whats she holding when she has her arm around Jake? Some guy is looking at whatever it is, like he's thinking What the hell? :D
Also noticed: no chokehold this time. They musta gotten bad feedback on that loving gesture.
Btw GG's link (Flynet again!) has Jake with 3 coffees. Reeke is drinking 2. Did the 3rd go to someone else? The photog maybe? :D
Maybe the 3rd coffee was for Chris, just like how he was in NYC last week but all the pics were Reeke. It just wouldnt be the same to show 3 buddies shopping for flowers would it. Will, Jack & Karen. (no way is Reese a Grace, Grace is too nice)
My last post for the nite! (sorry)
Noticed only Flynet has the injury/flowers pics, no other sites picked them up. Maybe they got posted too late, or no one cares anymore.
Bad seed, did you ever watch Will and Grace? Grace was the meanest character on there. By far.
I wish places like youtube would put up a comment why they took it down. So other people could decide whether it was warranted or not.
Once again, if people feel the need to shut you up, it's because they don't feel strong in their own beliefs.
Next big occasion will be Reese's birthday.
On our famous magazine over here, it says on the cover that Reese saved Jake from troubled times (or something like that. I actually can't remember it word for word even though I only saw it about five minutes ago). No I didn't read it. No I'm not going to.
Jakey
What were doing out? You know the Dr. said Rest(pushes them down on the couch) Ice (rubs a ice cube along his neck), Compression (long naughty squeeze) and now let's see about some Elevation. ; )
ag, Karen was the meanest one. What does everyone else think?
OMG Reese and Jake are having a baby.
http://popsugar.com/gallery/243373/?page=0,0,0&show=large
He's carrying all it up front. Does that mean a boy?
How far along, do you think? Looks like it might be 5 months but the long white tshirt top makes the belly look bigger so maybe only 3 or 4.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!
I thought most ass babies were carried more in the back and lower but Jake might be different. I dunno.
The tongue is back. PR did their homework.
bad seed, you're paying for my cardiologist :) :) :)
Will & Grace, hmm. They were all mean (as in selfish mean), that was the fun of the show, really.
Will was the most put-upon, but even he asserted himself.
Better go look at these pics at - where was it again? :D
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